


Threat

by TheRantDragon



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Apocalyptic Scenario, F/M, alien invaders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 21:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17650601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRantDragon/pseuds/TheRantDragon
Summary: They took Conner first.





	Threat

They took Conner first.

It was logical, really, to take away the power house before anyone else. He hadn’t gone down without a fight, not without kicking and screaming and bashing a few heads in along the way.

But they had procured kryptonite, somehow.

There hadn’t been much of a fight after that.

The invaders had imprisoned Conner with a strange, biotechnological collar that constricted his throat; it had wrapped around him like a serpent, wriggling it’s way up his face until it’s tentacle like appendage slipped into one of his nostrils. What little consciousness had remained in the raven-haired man had left, and with a scary jerking of his body, he’d seized and they’d seen the whites of his eyes.

The aliens dragged him away, picking him up like a sack of flour in their massive limbs.

The Team been forced to strategically retreat with a screaming, struggling M’gann held between them, and hearts that felt heavier.

The Martian was subdued next.

The invaders feared her mind, the power it held within. They were a militant race, a technological race that engineered their warriors with the abilities of their enemies. They longed to control that which made them feel uneasy.

Taking the martian would accomplish two things simultaneously; robbing those that defied them of another power house, and allowing them to experiment on her mind to learn how they could genetically modify their military with immunity to telepathic interference.

Miss Martian’s capture had been a brilliantly executed plan by the enemy, one that the Team had not anticipated. It had caught them all off guard and they’d paid for it.

The bio-collar they attached to her neck had been different than the others they’d seen so far; thicker, more  _alive_. It buried one end of itself into her ear and the moment it did, she had screamed a sound so horrible it would leave them scarred.

A physical and mental howl that staggered them all and made them cry out with her shared pain.

Her form had shuddered and rippled beneath the onslaught of whatever was affecting her, and she’d melted into her true form. She’d collapsed after that, stark white skin bathed in the flickering red flames that had weakened her for them.

And then she was gone, too.

Kaldur, their stalwart leader.

Captured in the first of several attempts to rescue the others from the dark and imposing citadel the invaders had planted right on top of the Empire State Building in New York.

The Team (what remained of it) had never seen such rage emanate from him when their cover had been blown and the invaders had descended upon them with gleeful conquest. He had turned into a veritable whirlwind, a long, drawn out yell ripping from his throat as he took out several aliens getting too close to Nightwing and Artemis and Kid Flash. His tattoos had been vibrant, hot and bright enough that it almost blinded them.

But even his fury was not enough, and they had a gut feeling he’d known it almost from the start.

“Go!” he’d snarled, barring the aliens from them with his water bearers; sweat rolled off his skin and blood trailed down from his forehead. “Go, go and fight another day, learn from our mistakes here!  _GO!!”_

The barrier shattered and Kaldur was lost under their gigantic bodies.

They never even caught a glimpse of their captured friends.

And now they were all that remained.  Nightwing, Artemis, Kid Flash.

They are pinned inside of a sewer near the citadel, the smell flaring their nostrils and making the whole situation feel that much worse. The street drain had been blown open way back during the first attacks, and they had all three slid into it to take refuge from the fire of plasma weapons.

They are scrambling for a plan, and Wally’s impatient skin scares Artemis.

“Wally, don’t!” she growls, grabbing his wrist just in time to stop him from speeding out headlong into their enemies. They’re all three covered from head to toe in ash and blood and sewage, and she reaches out impulsively to wipe it away from his defiant eyes.  _“_ _Don’t.”_

“I can’t just sit here anymore!” he shouts, grabbing her hand in one of his own. It’s firm, but still gentle even in his anger. Day by day his patience had waned, his demeanor becoming more and more reckless while he knew their companions were wasting away inside the enemy holding cells.

For the past two weeks he’d listened to Nightwing less, running off on his own for periods of time that frayed Artemis’s nerves. He’d always come back just before she could get out there to find him herself, and the way he greeted her with hot, passionate kisses that bled into desperate and frenzied love-making scared her more than she’d ever admit.

It seemed like the speedster was on his last thread, right here, right now. It had all been building up to this, and now she knows  _exactly_  why he’s been kissing her and loving her like it was all coming to an end.

She  _can’t_  let him go.

“Wally, they’re picking us off, you know that, don’t be a moron! You’re next on their list of threats.  _Don’t_  give them what they want!” Artemis snarls, curling her nails into his yellow spandex. His whole body is vibrating so fiercely that his outline in the darkened sewer becomes little more than a blur she can’t focus on.

A blur she can’t catch, no matter how hard she might try.

And Artemis knows then that it’s all hopeless.

“ _Wally—_ ” she tries, voice cracking, but he attacks her mouth in a searing kiss. It’s too fast, too sudden for her to respond.

Then he’s gone, and Dick is grabbing  _her_  wrist to stop her from running after him like a fool.

“Artemis, let him go,” Dick says, his voice thick at the loss. “We can’t let them get us, too. We’re  _all_  that’s left. Wally’s….” He trails off, shaking his head and going back to the hub pulled up on his glove. His jaw is clenched tight, and Artemis knows better.

The archer feels her eyes sting as she rushes to the gaping hole and watches. Wally is strong and fast and smart. For a moment it looks like he might drive them all back with the force and speed of his attacks, but just when the numbers start to thin out a hidden door at the bottom of the fortress gapes open and hundreds more spill out.

He doesn’t stand a chance.

Artemis yells out and looks away at the sight of the bio-collar clamping into place on Wally’s defeated body. One of the invaders bends to place a second one on his ankles, binding them together tightly. The collar on his neck snakes into his nose, and he falls unconscious into the dirt and ash, sending up a plume that obscures the image of his body being dragged away to languish with the others.

Artemis trembles with anguish and rage, and Dick is a statue beside her.

They’re all that’s left now.

No powers.

No threat, according to their enemies.

Artemis’s hands curl into fists, and Dick places a heavy palm on her shoulder, squeezing it in a promise to get them all back.

The enemy will regret the day they wrote them off as non-threatening.


End file.
